If you believe in the principles of Moneyball, then you probably think the baseball playoffs are a whole lot of luck, weird bounces and very little of anything else - which is a possibility. Although I do believe in the random, aimless, existential nightmare that is life, I also believe in one other thing - dominant pitchers.

A true number one pitcher, a Kevin Brown from 1998, a Randy Johnson from 2001, or a Curt Schilling from 2004 - a guy you can count on to get the job done, throw as many pitches as necessary and who still wants to come out and pitch the next day and do it all again.

Neither the Angels or Cubs have "that guy" and that's why both will be sitting watching the first snowfall of the year from their living room and not trying to play baseball in it.

John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders, Ryan Dempster, Rich Harden - all great regular season pitchers - guys who will go six to seven innings a game, 30-35 times (15-20 for Harden) a year - pick up 10-plus wins and collect their paychecks. They are all decent number two or three starters (closer to three) in the league but have little ability to intimidate and low probability of taking over a game.

I hesitate to put Carlos Zambrano on the list because he has potential to be a shutdown starter in the postseason, he proved he could be against the Diamondbacks in 2007, but the fact is that on sufficient rest, when his team needed him the most, he failed to be the guy that swung the momentum in the Cubs' favor.

As much as I hate to admit it, a model for the dominant pitcher theory are the Red Sox. In 2004 they had the trifecta of Pedro, Schilling and Lowe - Schilling was lights out, Lowe got hot and Pedro was just doing the dirty dirty as usual. In 2007, Beckett single handedly won games for the Sawx. This year Jon Lester has been has been silly, 14.0 IP, 11 K's, 1 run and he has allowed a mere 10 hits.

The Angels and Cubs did not have a stopper who they could count on for a win in the playoffs and that was their biggest weakness. They can now spend the entire off-season trying to outbid each other for C.C. Sabathia.

Maybe a dominant pitcher is important in the playoffs and maybe it isn't - maybe it's just particles bouncing all different ways and in the end one has to rise above the other regardless - in other words - chaos. Who knows, I just prefer to believe in a bloody sock, a mullet and post-seventh inning side-arm delivery for success. It's better than believing in chance.